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Support & Problem Solving

The anti-glare coating on some MacBook Pro displays is peeling off under normal use, but Apple is being inconsistent with how it approaches the problem. Topher Kessler of MacIssues offers advice for those with affected Macs.

iCloud users are reporting problems receiving email messages sent from Gmail. There doesn’t appear to be anything that can be done about it, other than pointing Gmail-based correspondents to an alternative email address.

If you still use an AOL username to sign in to the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store, you must convert it to an Apple ID before 31 March 2015. As of that date, Apple will no longer support AOL usernames for logging in to those services.

Bad news if you use Dropbox to sync with ancient Macs: Dropbox will no longer support Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as of 18 May 2015. Users will still be able to use the Dropbox Web interface, but the Dropbox app (and thus Finder integration) will no longer work.

If you’re unhappy with the thin Helvetica text in Messages in Yosemite, particularly for your white-on-blue bubbles, read on for the trick to bringing back at least some of the configurability that Messages previously enjoyed.

If you accidentally recorded a video in Slo-Mo mode on an iPhone or iPad Air 2, you can’t easily save a real-time version. Jeff Carlson shares a couple of workarounds using either the free Slow Fast Slow app or iMovie for iOS.

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If you hate iTunes 12 and long for the relatively halcyon days of iTunes 11, then Macworld’s Chris Breen has your back. Borrowing a tip from Jacqui Cheng, formerly of Ars Technica, Breen has outlined seven steps for going back to the previous version of iTunes.

If you’ve enabled iCloud Drive, be leery of using Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings to reset an iOS device, as doing so could erase at least some of your iCloud data. MacRumors has confirmed that activating that option after upgrading to iCloud Drive deletes all iWork documents stored in iCloud. However, iCloud documents that cannot be accessed by iOS, like those in Preview and TextEdit, appear to not be affected. Just another reason to hold off on upgrading to iCloud Drive until Apple works out the kinks.

With vast numbers of apps being updated for iOS 8 in the next few weeks, it’s safer to turn off automatic updates so you control which apps are updated and when. If it ain’t broke… don’t let it update so it doesn’t possibly break.

With his wife’s music library locked up in a rusty iPod touch, Josh Centers had to find a way to rescue it. Luckily, he found DeTune, which can copy media from an iOS device that can’t be accessed normally via iTunes.

Kirk McElhearn has written an article for Macworld about Apple’s personalized support Web pages, which keep a record of every Apple product you own, as well as warranty coverage, support cases, and repairs. It’s also handy to know how to access these pages in case your gear is stolen, as they store your devices’ serial numbers.

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